PET writing Part 3. The Fun Bit. Part 2

After the not quite borefest but let's be honest not exactly enthralling, yet incredibly useful, opening to this class I provided you with on Tuesday. Today's blog is going to get your students to practice what they've learnt and get it to stick in their memory.

So after you've made Frankenstein's letter and the students have the options available to them to create their own master piece I present the students a chance to really play with it.

Step 1:   Do a secret Santa style phone number swap.

Step 2: Students to find out who their partner is by sending a hello message on whatsapp. From now on the class must remain silent. Only speaking through whatsapp.

Step 3: Get students to decide who will be person a and who will be person b.

Step 4: Person A sends the greeting to person B.

Step 5: Student B sends the first line of the informal letter to student B. In doing so they should use as much of the text talk vocabulary and as many emojis as they can. eg:

  S'up? Thnx 4 the letter,             I was over the  when it arrived.

Step 6: Partner B must then complete the first paragraph with the reason for not writing sooner.

I'm sry I didn't  b4, I've been really busy with work.


Step 7: Students to work their way through the letter until they've finished their correspondence. When they're done I get them to sit together and decode their messages onto the PET writing part 3 template. 

Step 8:  Finally, ask your students to take their completed templates and write their final, perfect, informal letter.

NB for the final step I like to get my students to write up their final letter on a piece of paper wrapped in tin foil. It is that extra bit of writing outside the box which will really stick what they have done in class in their memories. It will also have them writing the final letter once more and not even complaining about it because it's going to look shiny and lovely. They can then be put up around the classroom of a constant reminder of what a great teacher you are and how much fun they have in your classes.

Well, I really hope your students enjoy this class. I've found it's really worked well with mine and it makes them really happy to leave the books aside for a day and focus on developing their writing in a slightly different way.


FULL LESSON PRINTABLE LESSON PLAN HERE

'til next time

Upgrade Your Writing

There are many many ways to make sure your writing is up to the level it should be. One simple method is to use these two little worksheets cunningly pasted together. I've noticed a much more expressive nature coming into my students writing. It has been a real pleasure to read, which makes a change from the start of the year.
Neither of these worksheets are mine but I really love them and use them with all of my higher level classes.

I've added them to this link, Writing Help, as well so you can print them out and give them to your students at the drop of a hat.

I hope your students take full advantage of this as a number of mine have in the past. 

Writing outside the box

Yes, write on that. Why? Because you can

While most of my posts are aimed at speaking and trying to get your students to open up as much as possible.
Today  I want to go down the writing road. I'm not going to try and pretend these ideas are mine, they're mostly from the weird wonderful mind the ELTgenius that is Chris Roland.http://chrisroland.net/ I've used them this year and they've really worked well on getting kids interested in writing and making sure teens actually give a damn about what comes from their pen.

Much like my recent potato post for speaking I've found writing on things that aren't there to be written on can really spark students' interest.

It's a fairly simple four step plan I implement each time I use something strange.
 I go through how to do said writing. Be it kids, exam students or adults.
 I do a quick plan and/or in class to make sure the students are all on the right track.
 Next I set the writing as homework and tell them in the next class, after correcting their work, they'll be writning their letter, essay, review on something a bit different, which is then put up around the room.

Some of the things I've used this year have been, tin foil/aluminium paper wrapped around an A4 sheet of paper, balloons, paper plates, napkins and latex gloves. Before I give any of the students their blank canvas I get the student to write me a letter of request to ask to use the object and to promise not to abuse it. They then in turn have to take great care and attention so as not to rip, burst or destroy their work. If they do, It's time to start again.

What this has done is made my students really focus on their work. They also end up having an almost perfect example of whatever piece of writing you have set and it sticks in their mind because it was somewhat out of the ordinary.

Making writing fun is the key to success and also giving students something fun to write on will really encourage them to do their homework. Can you imagine being in a class where all of your classmates are blowing up balloons and you'e stuck there doing the homework you "left at home."

Give it a shot. It realy livened up my writing session.